Tuesday, May 19, 2015

I hired an accountant and a bookkeeper, on Startup. I am  really glad I did because between the accountant and bookkeeper and myself we were able to draw a picture of what my business could do to improve its assets, sell more products, include new products and what time line this can be done in. Also exactly what can be spent when.
A small business accountant can help you figure out the best way to use your assets for the most beneficial financial advantage. The financial health of your small business is best left to a professional who can help guide the process and offer valuable counsel on what information is key for any business to be aware of.
 Another friend on Linkedin suggested before I hire an accountant and a bookkeeper I take a class in bookkeeping and accounting online. She said "You have to learn the jargon so that you can tell them what you want them to do and describe your creative vision to them. They do not necessarily speak creative."  So off to Udemity to take a class in accounting and one in bookkeeping. These classes are on video and you finish them at your own rate. In less than a month I had the language down to talk to my new accountant and bookkeeper and have them draw me financial charts of my creative idea. Now then as soon as I was able to speak accounting, they were taking a class at the same time in  Entrepreneurship and creative design. As soon as we were able to practice a bit with our new skills the accountant gave me the picture of how to start, the timeline, how much I could spend, and how my creative idea would take shape. And the most wonderful thing happened I could speak money. 
While small business owners are often usually experts in their own field or industry, rarely are they either accounting, tax or legal experts. An accountant can provide information that will shed valuable light on how to save small business accountant can help you figure out the best way to use your assets for the most beneficial financial advantage. The financial health of your small business is best left to a professional who can help guide the process and offer valuable counsel on what information is key for any business to be aware of. While small business owners are often usually experts in their own field or industry, rarely are they either accounting, tax or legal experts. An accountant can provide information that will shed valuable light on how to save and manage money for the best chance of success for your small business. Below are some reasons to hire s small business accountant.
Reason #1 - Business Assets
An accountant will become familiar with and handle the business assets, including the total ledger balance and its detailed credits, debits, profits and losses. Accountants are in a position to provide advice on how to keep monetary resources up or better them, since they have the specific insight into the financial position of your small business.  Anyone who's worked in an office at some point or another has had to go to accounting. They're the people who pay and send out the bills that keep the business running. They do a lot more than that, though. Sometimes referred to as "bean counters" they also keep their eye on profits, costs and losses. Unless you're running your own business and acting as your own accountant, you'd have no way of knowing just how profitable - or not - your business is without some form of accounting.

No matter what business you're in, even if all you do is balance a checkbook, that's still accounting. It's part of even a kid's life. Saving an allowance, spending it all at once - these are accounting principles.
Reason #2 - Tax Assessments
Accountants are up to date on and have the appropriate tax law knowledge for small businesses. They can also help to verify compliance for you which will ward off taxation troubles. Accountants also know about various taxation breaks as they occur so that you can get the best value claim reward available.

Every business and every individual needs to have some kind of accounting system in their lives. Otherwise, the finances can get away from them, they don't know what they've spent, or whether they can expect a profit or a loss from their business. Staying on top of accounting, whether it's for a multi-billion dollar business or for a personal checking account is a necessary activity on a daily basis if you're smart. Not doing so can mean anything from a bounced check or posting a loss to a company's shareholders. Both scenarios can be equally devastating.

Accounting is basically information, and this information is published periodically in business as a profit and loss statement, or an income statement.
Reason #3 - Technical Financial Systems
Many accountants are extremely skillful and updated on how to apply the latest technical aspects for accounting, such as with software that enables quick statements and reports, as well as access to financial information. This can also help a business owner in other areas of their business, with access to some of the most organized accounting systems.
Reason #4 - Business Planning
An accounting firm can act as advisor and perform business reviews to provide information that will be important for key financial reports that your company will rely upon to make other important business decisions.


Accounting has been defined as, by Professor of Accounting at the University of Michigan William A Paton as having one basic function: "facilitating the administration of economic activity. This function has two closely related phases: 1) measuring and arraying economic data; and 2) communicating the results of this process to interested parties."

As an example, a company's accountants periodically measure the profit and loss for a month, a quarter or a fiscal year and publish these results in a statement of profit and loss that's called an income statement.  These statements include elements such as accounts receivable (what's owed to the company) and accounts payable (what the company owes). It can also get pretty complicated with subjects like retained earnings and accelerated depreciation. This at the higher levels of accounting and in the organization.

Much of accounting though, is also concerned with basic bookkeeping. This is the process that records every transaction; every bill paid, every dime owed, every dollar and cent spent and accumulated.

But the owners of the company, which can be individual owners or millions of shareholders are most concerned with the summaries of these transactions, contained in the financial statement. The financial statement summarizes a company's assets. A value of an asset is what it cost when it was first acquired. The financial statement also records what the sources of the assets were. Some assets are in the form of loans that have to be paid back. Profits are also an asset of the business.

In what's called double-entry bookkeeping, the liabilities are also summarized. Obviously, a company wants to show a higher amount of assets to offset the liabilities and show a profit. The management of these two elements is the essence of accounting.

There is a system for doing this; not every company or individual can devise their own systems for accounting; the result would be chaos!
Accountants can assist with appraising the viability of future projects with gain and loss forecasts. The expertise of a professional accountant can be instrumental in preparing business proposals and plans that will grow your company.
Accountants often have experience in similar business organizations to yours, which will provide worthwhile business experience advice for your company. An example is that the accountant could provide useful suggestions from evaluation calculations and by setting income targets grounded upon your particular fiscal situation and business organization targets.
Reason #5 - Networking and Referrals
Because of the respect that they receive in the business community, accountants can also provide valuable networking contacts that can help to easily grow your business organically.
Professional accountants have similar customers that can be utilized as relevant contacts that may be referred to other clients. This also helps with networking for selling, buying and with potential business partnerships as well as other ventures.
Those are just a few of the many benefits you can receive from engaging the expertise of an accountant for your small business. Accountants don't just crunch numbers; they can provide worthwhile and essential tax and business advice that is vital to your company and its future success.







An accountant is a person who manages financial issues, including the preparation of financial plans and budgets, as well as the management of accounts and staff welfare.

In most countries, officially licensed accountants are recognized by titles. In the UK, they are termed as “chartered accountants.” In the U.S., accountants are commonly known as “certified public accountants,” whereas in Canada, they are either known as “certified management accountants” or “certified general accountants.” Although most of the accountants in Canada also function as chartered accountants, certified general accountants are also authorized to practice public accounting and auditing in the country.

The main responsibilities of accountants are to create financial reports and to undertake day-to-day bookkeeping for managers, regulators, and shareholders. Accountants manage a double-entry bookkeeping system wherein there are two entries for every transaction are made, one to a debit account and one to a corresponding credit account. As per accounting rules, the sum of the debit and credit figures should be equal and any discrepancy in the total means that there has been an error. An accountant also audits and inspects the financial records of individuals or businesses, along with preparing financial and tax reports.

In the United States, accountants can obtain specialized certificates in varied fields where they can hold titles like “certified public accountant,” “certified internal auditor,” “certified management accountant,” and “accredited business accountants.” In the U.S., the governmental accounting standard board prepares accounting rules for making financial statements for publicly traded companies and private companies. Further, some of the accounting organizations that influence developing standard rules for accountants in the U.S. are the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA), the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB), and the Governmental Accounting Standards Board (GASB).e and manage money for the best chance of success for your small business. Below are some reasons to hire s small business accountant.
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